About the Program

From energy to climate change to environmental degradation, many of the most pressing societal issues of the coming century will pertain to geoscience. The study of the Earth is central to maintaining clean drinking water, mitigating environmental contamination, providing ores and rare elements necessary for industry, and locating new sources of energy.

The Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science(BEES) Department offers a major in geoscience, with three concentration options designed to meet the needsof students wishing to pursue graduate school or immediate employment in the geosciences:

Applied Geology

General Geoscience

Paleontology

The core requirements encompass foundational courses in science, writing, and math, and traditional courses that form the backbone of the geosciences.Building upon these are innovative courses focused on Earth systems processes, key environmental issues, practical field experiences, and advanced geological study.

In addition to nourishing and honing the passions of students studying the Earth, the core curriculum is designed to:

Lay the groundwork for our students to pursue advanced graduate study in the geosciences and other disciplines, and;

Enable our graduates to translate marketable skills and knowledge into high-quality jobs in industry and government.

Geoscience majors will begin their field experiences during the first term of their freshmen year. Most courses include a laboratory section or a hands-on recitation section (“dry lab”), plus at least three field trips to relevant regional geological sites. These courses, combined with the co-op experience andsummer geological field camp, provide students real-world experience in the field.

About the Concentrations

Applied Geology

The applied geology concentration is designed for students wishing to enter the geoscience workforce upon graduation. Possible employment opportunities include jobs in: environmental consulting, geotechnical consulting, geophysical consulting, the petroleum and natural gas industry, the mining industry, federal agencies (e.g., USGS, USDA, NOAA, FEMA, EPA, DOI, and Army Corps of Engineers), and state and local agencies (e.g., state environmental agencies, state geological surveys, and municipal water departments).

General Geoscience

The general geoscience concentration allows maximum flexibility and is designed for students wishing to pursue other areas of study within the geosciences, students wishing to pursue policy-related careers, and students planning to apply to professional graduate programs, such as those in law or business schools. The policy component of this concentration allows students to explore related societal issues, which may help guide their career aspirations. This concentration also provides transfer students with a pathway to graduate on time.

Students graduating from this concentration will be well prepared to enter graduate school in science or policy, as well as to pursue professional studies. Students seeking immediate employment will be competitive for jobs with, for example, certain NGOs, environmental foundations, consulting companies, and government policy positions related to natural resources and the environment.

Paleontology

The concentration in paleontology prepares students who are interested in pursuing related research in graduate school and students seeking entry-level positions in paleontology. Examples of these jobs include biostratigrapher for petroleum companies, fossil resource manager for the Bureau of Land Management, and related positions with the National Parks Service, USGS, and state geological surveys.

Undergraduates in this concentration benefit from world-class resources already established at the Academy of Natural Sciences. These include theInvertebrate paleontology collection, with over1 million specimens; the vertebrate fossil collection, with over 22,000 specimens; historically important specimens, such as the Thomas Jefferson fossil collection, the first discovered dinosaur skeleton, and the first discovered tyrannosaur; and the paleobotany collection, with over5,000 specimens, including a large proportion of type specimens.

Students in the paleontology concentration will have access to numerous fossil sites along the Atlantic Coastal Plain and in the Appalachian Province. Opportunities exist for student research at two well-established sites: Dr. Daeschler’s Red Hill site, which produces evolutionarily important forms representing the fish to tetrapod transition; and Dr. Lacovara’s Inversand site, which records a mass-death assemblage at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

Choose to start CHEM or BIO sequence depending on concentration. Paleontology students should take BIO 124 & BIO 126. Students interested in applied or geochemistry should start CHEM.

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Note: Students do Field Camps during Co-Op in the Junior year. These 6.0 credits are transferred during Co-Op. Please see your advisor for additional information.

Co-Op/Career Opportunities

Co-Op Opportunities

There are over one hundred environmental, geophysical, and geotechnical firms within the greater Philadelphia region. Plus, there are opportunities with federal, state, and municipal agencies, jobs in central Pennsylvania related to the Marcellus Shale, and research opportunities between Drexel and the Academy of Natural Sciences.

All geoscience majors follow the five-year, three co-op plan of study program. Transfer students may be granted an exception for a two co-op plan of study, so that they may remain on schedule.The summer geological field camp will occur during the third co-op cycle. In this third co-op, geoscience students attend field camp and also partake in an abbreviated co-op work experience.

Career Opportunities

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment for geoscientists through 2020 is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations. In addition, the geosciences are expected to outpace life, physical, and social sciences in job creation.The employment outlook for geoscientists in Drexel's surrounding area is particularly bright, with a robust environmental consulting industry and exploding demand related to Marcellus Shale drilling.

The geoscience major, with its three concentrations, prepares students who are interested in entering the workforce immediately as well as those who are interested in pursuing related research in graduate schools.

Facilities and Field Sites

Facilities

The geoscience major leverages resources at Drexel University and the Academy of Natural Sciences, such as a mineral collection with 9,000 specimens, over a million fossil specimens, Dinosaur Hall, The Patrick Center for Environmental Research, a state-of-the-art fossil preparation lab, notable research programs, and faculty with expertise in geology, paleontology, and related disciplines.

Summer Geological Field Camp

Summer geological field camp is the quintessential undergraduate experience for geosciences students. It is a long-held tradition in geology departments that students head out West, during the summer before graduation, to apply their knowledge to real-world situations and to acquire field skills that will serve them throughout their careers. This is particularly important for students in eastern schools, where the mountains are small and outcrops are scarce. Field camp also provides networking and bonding opportunity for students. Friends made at field camp often become colleagues for life. At the Geological Society of America meeting, reunions are organized by university and by field camp.

The summer geological field camp for geoscience students will occur during the third co-op cycle.

Barnegat Bay Coastal Field Station

The BEES field station on Barnegat Bay in Waretown, NJ provides geoscience students with opportunities to engage in hands-on research in coastal geology, barrier island morphology, oceanography, and sedimentology. The facility includes a lodge, two classrooms/meeting rooms, dining hall, dormitories, and rustic cabins. The field station is located on 194 acres of diverse coastal habitat, including a maritime forest, tidal creek, salt marsh, fresh water pond, brackish impoundment, and bayshore environments. The department’s research vessel gives students access to back-bay and near-shore marine environments.

The department holds its introductory field session for incoming freshmen and other events at the field station. The facility may also serve as a base for excursions into the Pine Barrens, a heavily forested area containing a number of interesting deposits related to the last glacial period.

Red Hill Fossil Site

The Red Hill fossil site, in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, exposes Devonian coastal sedimentary rocks that preserve a rich fossil fauna. Of particular importance is a fossil fish species, studied by Dr. Ted Daeschler, representing a critical transition between fish and tetrapods (land animals.) This site offers opportunities for studying vertebrate paleontology, stratigraphy, and sedimentology and provides students with a window into an important moment in the history of life on Earth.

Inversand Fossil Site: Local training ground for Geoscience Majors

The Inversand fossil site is a unique resource for geological education, research, and STEM outreach. The quarry is located in Gloucester Country, NJ, only 20 minutes from Drexel’s campus, making it possible to conduct field exercises there within a three-hour class period. The geological formations that outcrop in the Inversand Quarry have yielded many new fossil species. The site has significance beyond vertebrate paleontology, however, and will provide a local laboratory for classes in geochemistry, geophysics, stratigraphy, sedimentology, hydrogeology, and environmental geology.As such, it will provide a valuable training-ground, a short distance from campus, for all Drexel geoscience majors.

Ted Daeschler, PhD(University of Pennsylvania)Associate Curator of Vertebrate Zoology; Vice President for Systematic Biology and the Library: Academy of Natural Sciences. Associate Professor. Vertebrate fauna of the Late Devonian Period in eastern North America; fossil collecting; systematic work focusing on freshwater vertebrates; nature of early non-marine ecosystems.

Tatyana Livshultz, PhD(Cornell University)Assistant Curator of Botany. Assistant Professor. Expertise of the milkweed and dogbane family (Apocynaceae); evolution and species diversity of the genus Dischidia; differences in floral form and function.

Sean O'Donnell, PhD(University of Wisconsin-Madison). Professor. Tropical ecology, focusing on geographic variation and elevation effects on ecology and behavior of army ants and ant-bird interactions; neurobiology, focusing on brain plasticity and brain evolution in social insects.

David J. Velinsky, PhD(Old Dominion University)Department Head, Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science. Professor. Geochemical cycling of organic and inorganic constituents of sediments and waters; Sedimentary diagenesis of major and minor elements; Isotope biogeochemistry of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur in marine and freshwater systems.

Jason Weckstein, PhD(Louisiana State University)Associate Curator of Ornithology. Associate Professor. Avian phylogenetics, comparative biology and evolutionary history; biodiversity surveys of birds and their parasites and pathogens; coevolutionary history of birds and their parasites.

Emeritus Faculty

John G. Lundberg, PhD(University of Michigan). Professor Emeritus. Diversity and diversification of fishes; documenting and interpreting the morphological, molecular, and taxonomic diversity of living and fossil fishes in the interrelated fields of systematic, faunistics and biogeography and paleobiology; exploration and collecting in poorly-known tropical freshwater habitats and regions.

Writing-intensive Requirements

In order to graduate, all students must pass three writing-intensive courses after their freshman year. Two writing-intensive courses must be in a student's major. The third can be in any discipline. Students are advised to take one writing-intensive class each year, beginning with the sophomore year, and to avoid “clustering” these courses near the end of their matriculation. Transfer students need to meet with an academic advisor to review the number of writing-intensive courses required to graduate.

For additional information, and an up-to-date list of the writing-intensive courses being offered, students should check the Drexel University Writing Center page